Visma-Lease A Bike have put a brave face on their latest setback in the Giro d'Italia and promised to keep hunting for stage wins as GC contender Cian Uijtdebroeks became their latest loss in a Giro that is proving a real rollercoaster for the Dutch squad.
During the first half of the Giro, the Dutch squad have celebrated a fine stage win courtesy of Olav Kooij in Naples, as well as a strong defence of the fifth overall and the best young rider's jersey by Uijtdebroeks.
However, the Belgian was starting to struggle on stage 10's summit finish at Bocca della Selva and the team opted to pull him out of the race before stage 11.
"Yesterday [Tuesday] at the finish line, he was not completely fit," said team directeur sportif Marc Reef before Wednesday's stage. "And then at the hotel he was even less well, developing a fever.
"So we came to the conclusion in the late evening that it was not even possible to take the start today."
Reef recognised that the loss of Uijtdebroeks was a major blow for Visma-Lease A Bike in the Giro and also for the Belgian, who looked very capable of achieving his goal of a top-10 finish in Rome. As Reef pointed out, the Giro was Uijtdebroeks' main goal of the season.
"Initially we were taking it stage by stage but it became increasingly clear in the first week that he was in a great place on GC," Reef said. "So, we switched to seeing if we could get as an overall position that was as good as possible.
"Now though, first we lost Olav Kooij on the day after the rest day and now we have lost Cian, so both goals we had with them are gone."
A year after winning the Giro d'Italia with Primož Roglič, Visma's Giro woes began even before the race as Wout van Aert was unable to take part because of his bad crash in the Spring Classics. 2020 podium finisher Wilco Kelderman was also unable to race after breaking his collarbone at Paris-Nice.
Things continued to go badly as early as stage 2 when Robert Gesink crashed out, followed by the exit of Christophe Laporte, Kooij's main lead-out man and a valuable stage hunter in his own right.
Kooij's stage win in Naples and Uijtdebroeks' lengthy spell in the white jersey, broken only on one day by Luke Plapp, all represented standout Giro successes for the team.
But with both now forced out of the race, as Reef said, "Now we'll have to reset our targets again and then look forward again."
In a sense that process already began on stage 10 as Jan Tratnik tried for a stage win at Bocca della Selva, finally getting caught and overhauled by eventual winner Valentin Paret-Peintre and then by runner-up Romain Bardet.
Then on stage 12, following Reef's comments to the press, Visma-Lease A Bike sent Edoardo Affini and Tim van Dijke to try their luck in a lengthy three-rider early break.
The break was finally sucked in after over 160km on the front. But although unsuccessful, it served to underline Reef's insistence they were not going to throw in the towel following these latest setbacks.
"One year is not like another," Reef said, referencing his team's spectacular ability to win all three Grand Tours in 2023.
"But still we are in a fighting mood and we were already aiming to go for stage wins here in the Giro. On Tuesday, we tried that with Tratnik, and he got close to getting it. So, we'll go on like that. It won't be easy but we still have four very motivated guys.
"We have been in a situation like this before, in the Tour of 2021 when we only had four guys left at the end. But we still won four stages and had Jonas [Vingegaard] on the podium.
"I think two years ago in the Giro we also started a GC goal and within a few days it was gone [After Tom Dumoulin cracked early on – Ed.] and we switched to stages and got two and the mountains jersey.
"The guys in the team have prepared for this Giro for a long time, and they're not just here to follow wheels. They will fight for the chances that are still there."
Whilst happy to discuss Visma-Lease A Bike's radical revision of their plans for the Giro d'Italia, Reef refused to be drawn on the consequences of Uijtdebroeks withdrawal regarding the Tour de France.
For now, he said, the team were fully focussed on handling the ongoing Grand Tour, adding that, after these latest developments, the team's radical overhaul of their plans will likely take some time to be fully complete.
